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At the age of only thirty-five years, Norman Podhoretz had already been, for several years, the editor of Commentary, an important magazine published under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee, and the author of about one hundred pieces of nonfiction. These reviews and articles of various kinds had been appearing in print since 1963 in periodicals such as Partisan Review, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and Show. Podhoretz had not yet written a book of his own, however, and felt the urgency to do so. Two events triggered the writing of Making It (1967). The first concerned James Baldwin and the publication of The Fire Next Time (1963). This important piece of writing had been commissioned by Podhoretz at Commentary, but Baldwin took the opportunity to get twenty times as much for it from The New Yorker. Podhoretz was furious and accused Baldwin of committing such an unprofessional act partly because, as a black, he would get away with it. Podhoretz further went on to assure Baldwin that he felt no white-liberal guilt, although, admittedly, his attitude toward blacks was less than saintly, based on real childhood experiences in Brooklyn. Baldwin responded by suggesting that Podhoretz write it all down and publish it, which Podhoretz did as “My Negro Problem—and Ours” in the February, 1963, issue of Commentary. This article, which suggested among other things that wholesale miscegenation, while unlikely, might be the best conclusion to the problem of integration in America, given that whites possessed more racist feelings than they admitted to and that blacks had at that time a secret dream of escaping their blackness, received a torrent of response. More important, it marked a breakthrough for Podhoretz as a writer, for it was the first time he had written in his own voice, not hiding behind the book under review while sneaking in his own opinions.

Doc, the owner and operator of Western Biological Laboratory. He was graduated from the University of Chicago. Doc is small, strong, and wiry, and he loves science, beer, women, classical music, books, and prints. He is a thoroughly civilized man and the acknowledged, but unofficial, “mayor” of Cannery Row in Monterey. He is a fountain of wisdom, philosophy, and sometimes medical and psychiatric advice. Doc has a pointed brown beard and is described as half Christ and half satyr. Doc has a fear of getting his head wet. He is beloved by all but is nevertheless a lonely and remote man.

Danny, a paisano in his early thirties. His heritage is a mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican, and Caucasian, but, like all paisanos, he claims to be purely Spanish. He is small, dark, and compact in build. Danny is without conventional ambition but is intelligent and capable. He broke mules for the army in Texas during World War I. After his return from the war, Danny inherits two wooden houses from his grandfather, but property brings responsibility and worry, and security brings boredom, brooding, and restlessness: Danny likes women and fighting. He is the King Arthur of the round table of paisanos of Monterey.

Nell Purvis Strickland, a sixty-three-year-old inhabitant of Mountain City, North Carolina. Nell had been trained as a nurse and had practiced but then had married Leonard Strickland, an attorney. They had two daughters, Cate and Lydia. Nell is a widow with many friends among the city's best citizens. She is an intelligent, compassionate woman whose main interests are her family, her home, and her book discussion group, composed of longtime friends. Nell worries about her two daughters, who are very little alike, have trouble getting along, and are both going through large changes in their lives. She has always deferred to her husband; after his death, she must find her own identity and a reason to live.

Scripps O'Neil, who claims to have published two stories in The Dial and one in The Saturday Evening Post. He also claims to be a Harvard man. O'Neil is tall and lean. Deserted by his wife and daughter Lucy in Mancelona, Michigan, O'Neil wanders down the railroad tracks to Petoskey and goes to work in the pump factory as a piston-collarer. It is mentioned that his father was a great composer, that his mother is from Florence, Italy, and that he and his mother had to beg from door to door in Chicago when Scripps was a boy, but much of what is said about Scripps in this satirical work is contradictory. He also claims that his father was a general in the Confederate Army and that his mother, with Scripps clinging to her dress, berated General Sherman as the Yankees burned the O'Neil plantation. O'Neil, who is “literary” and romantically fickle, takes many of his meals in Brown's Beanery, where he falls in love with and marries Diana, an elderly waitress. He soon rejects her for Mandy, a younger waitress. Scripps inexplicably carries a bird inside his shirt through much of the story. He finally gives the bird to Diana. Scripps is with Mandy at the story's end, but his mind is wandering.